Every Day Is Extra

Written by John Kerry

Narrated by John Kerry

Every Day Is Extra is John Kerry’s personal story. The title comes from a saying he and his buddies had in Vietnam. A child of privilege, Kerry went to private schools and Yale, then enlisted in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. He commanded river patrols – swift boats – and was highly decorated, but he discovered that the truth about what was happening in Vietnam was different from what the government was reporting. He returned home disillusioned, became active against the war, and testified in Congress as a 27-year-old veteran who opposed the war.

In 2004 he ran for president against the incumbent, George W. Bush and came within one state – Ohio – of winning. In Every Day Is Extra he explains why he chose not to contest widespread voting irregularities in Ohio, fearing that after the 2000 election went to the U.S. Supreme Court, another challenge would undermine confidence in the voting system.

Kerry returned to the Senate, endorsed Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton in 2008, and when Clinton resigned in 2012 to run for the presidency, Kerry was confirmed as Secretary of State. In that position he tried – and like all his predecessors, failed – to find peace between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (he is critical of both sides but especially Prime Minister Netanyahu); dealt with the Syrian civil war and the rise of ISIS; negotiated the Iran nuclear deal; and signed the Paris climate accord.

This is a personal book, sometimes angry, sometimes funny, always moving. Secretary Kerry describes some of the remarkable events of his life, such as discovering that his paternal grandfather committed suicide – something his father never told him – and that this grandfather was Jewish, not Irish (he changed his name to Kerry from Kohn, and also converted to Catholicism). His account of his experiences in Vietnam is riveting. His story of his first real meeting with John McCain, another Vietnam veteran, is one of the most moving stories in the book; his respect for McCain is genuine and inspiring. Every Day Is Extra shows listeners how arduous it is to run for president and how demanding the role of secretary of state is.

Listeners of this audio book, whatever their political persuasion, will come away grateful that we have public servants who are prepared to spend their lives in service to their country. They will also come away with a new appreciation of John Kerry, a man often portrayed as aloof and stiff, but as this book reveals, funny, warm, and dedicated.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio UK
• Release date: Sep 6, 2018
• ISBN: 9781471181245

John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry is a former Secretary of State and five-term US Senator. Kerry is the author of Every Day Is Extra, A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, The New War, and the best-selling This Moment on Earth. He is currently a Distinguished Fellow for Global Affairs at Yale University as well as the inaugural Visiting Distinguished Statesman for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Kerry and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, have two daughters, three sons, and seven grandchildren.

Reviews for Every Day Is Extra

[schmerguls · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

5619. Every Day Is Extra, by John Kerry (read 11 Apr 2019) This is an autobiography and tells well of the busy life of the author, who was a Senator from Massachusetts for 28 years, the Democratic nominee for President in 2004 (if 35,000 in Ohio had voted for him instead of for George W. Bush he would have been elected), and Secretary of State during President Obama's second term. He tells well of his whole life (including his time in Vietnam and I found the book consistently interesting--though maybe a little overly detailed in regard to some of his efforts while Secretary, such as the fruitless quest to effect a peace between Israel and the Palestinians. One has to admire the sturdy work he did , especially while Secretary of State. We are fortunate that he did such good work, even though the present President seeks to undo some of it.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The former senator, presidential candidate and secretary of state has written a doorstopper, almost 600 pages long, but he has also led an extraordinary life. There were times early on when I contemplated putting this one down, but once Kerry started to talk about his time in Vietnam, he had me. He takes us through his service, his work with Vietnam Veterans Against the War and his entire political career. Kerry needed those 600 pages to tell his story and reveal something of himself. In fact, there are parts of his story he appropriately doesn't tell in detail, like the decline of his first marriage. He comes across as a very decent hard-working man dedicated to serving his country, similar to some of his friends like Joe Biden. I found his account of his 2004 presidential campaign very compelling but his descriptions of his efforts at diplomacy both as chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and as Secretary of State even more interesting. Kerry gives much credit to the career diplomats and foreign officials who worked with him on a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine problem, the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal) and the Paris Climate Accords. Some of his behind the scenes accounts of decision making in the Obama White House show the President as the careful, calm decision maker he always seemed and Kerry's account of the JCPOA negotiations complement's Wendy Sherman's very well.